Letters To The Editor

December 02, 2000

Public Misled On Officer's Inquiry

The news article ``Clearing Of Police Officer Challenged'' [Nov. 28] concerned statements by two of the three civilian members of the Firearms Discharge Board of Inquiry, which reviewed the shooting of Aquan Salmon by Officer Robert Allan.

FOR THE RECORD - Correction was published Tuesday, December 5, 2000 on Page A16.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee was improperly identified in Sadanand Nanjundiah's Dec. 2 letter, ``Israel Criticized.''

The statements, made at a Nov. 27 news conference, contained so much misleading, contradictory and inaccurate information that a response is required.

The most egregious error was the reporting of the department's firearm guidelines. The cilivians reportedly questioned why Officer Allan fired once ``when firearms guidelines require officers to fire twice, aiming to kill.''

The guidelines and training programs used by the department do not ever require officers to shoot. Nor do they require officers to aim to kill. Firearms and all other use-of-force training instructs officers to use only that force necessary to overcome the threat that they face.

Officers are instructed that it may be necessary to fire more than once because single shots often do not instantly incapacitate people. I invite the public to visit the ``Frequently Asked Questions'' section of the Hartford Police Web site (www.hartfordpolice.com) to review the department's firearm guidelines.

The civilians also reportedly questioned why the investigation conducted by New London State's Attorney Kevin Kane did not ``highlight the fact that Allan wasn't the only officer in the vacant lot when he shot Aquan.'' The Kane report does not highlight this ``fact'' because it is not true.

State police interviewed some 100 civilians, the other suspects and numerous police officers. At no time did anyone ever indicate that there was more than one officer at the scene when the shooting occurred. It has never been disputed that at least one officer did arrive at the scene within a minute of the shooting.

The civilians also reportedly questioned why State's Attorney Kane concluded that Officer Allan feared for his life. This question is apparently based on the fact that although Allan reported hearing a gunshot, ``no shell casings were found in the lot.'' Not all guns automatically eject shell casings when fired.

The article also failed to note that four witnesses reported hearing two shots, one witness reported hearing five shots, one witness reported hearing more than six shots and one person reported hearing a vehicle backfiring. It is impossible to conclude with certainty that no other shots were fired.

The civilians on the FDBI, Nicholas Carbone and Carmen Rodriguez, also dispute the conclusion that Aquan was 10 feet from Officer Allan when Allan fired. That conclusion was made by Henry Lee, perhaps the best forensic scientist in the world.

Another of the many examples of misleading information: quoting from the statement of one of the suspects without telling the reader that the suspect gave several different, contradictory statements and quoting extensively from Officer Allan's report, which they had claimed never to have received.

The inquiry process in which Mr. Carbone and Ms. Rodriguez participated is one that they have advocated for in federal court.

Their continued calls for further investigation of Officer Allan's conduct are perpetuating an ``us vs. them, get the cops at all costs'' mentality that has a negative impact on the way the department interacts with the community on a daily basis.

Sgt. Neil Dryfe

Public Information Officer

Hartford Police Department

Silly Way

To Contain Population

I have never before read such insanity as the Nov. 26 letter ``Overpopulation Is A Cancer'' from Teresa M. Barton of Killingly.

Ms. Barton is rather bold in her spiritual ignorance of the sanctity of life and in her bigotry against the poor who in this country are mainly black, Hispanic and Native American Indian.

Under Ms. Barton's final solution most of these Americans and all middle- to lower-income white Americans would no longer be allowed to exercise their God-given right to have children and would disappear from a clean form of genocide.

This because they don't have ``enough'' money to properly raise a family and definitely not enough money for prospective parents to each attend an eight-year university to get a degree in parenting. What families today can afford two degrees and raise children to boot?

Insanity. Bigotry. Spiritual ignorance.

Under Ms. Barton's three-step plan the world would have been deprived of such wondrous souls as Abraham Lincoln, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and let us not forget Jesus Christ who was so poor as to be born in a stable and who was raised by parents who did not have degrees in parenting. Beethoven never would of made the cut either. He was the 15th child in his family.

Ms. Barton's letter was reminiscent of what Ebenezer Scrooge said of the sick and elderly: ``If they are going to die they should hurry and do it so as to decrease the surplus population.'' He was then blessed with a Christmas miracle. An awakening of the soul.